Introduction

Ever since I was a young child, I have loved A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I don’t think that I am alone in this. I am sure that for many people – probably including you if your online search has brought you here to this page – it is wrapped up in and part of happy, nostalgic memories of Christmases of the past.

But it is not purely and simply a matter of nostalgia. As I have grown older, and continued to enjoy the story of the Carol every Christmas in one form or another, I have become ever more convinced that it is quite possibly the greatest story ever told. A story so perfect and so natural that it almost seems difficult to imagine that it wasn’t always there; so incredible to think that someone actually sat down and thought it out and created it as an authored piece of work. It feels as if it should have been a folk tale for the generations, and indeed that is pretty much what it has become.

I have another blog, where back in 2012 I wrote a piece about why I love A Christmas Carol so much, and where I thought its power lies. I have reproduced that post here on this blog, to hopefully give an idea as to the background to why I am such a fan of the work.

John Leech's illustration of Scrooge with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, from the original 1843 edition of the book.

For many, probably most, of us who have discovered the Carol since the mid-twentieth century, it is almost certainly an adaptation of some form or another that was our first exposure to it, rather than the original work itself. It has been adapted for stage, cinema, radio and television across the world on hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of occasions – and I find this fascinating.

All of the adaptations are different in one way or another. The creators of all of them choose to either to include or to omit certain sections, scenes, characters or lines of dialogue. They may take place in the original setting, or transport the story to other times and places. The very best of them have helped add to the story’s legacy and to widen its appeal – while the very worst can at least prove to be amusing examples of how not to undertake an adaptation, along with some more noble failures along the way. I want to see how one single, rather short, tale has been adapted so many different times by so many different people in so many different ways. (I must also admit to taking some inspiration from a rather fun blog I came across a few years ago, which listed and reviewed hundreds of cover versions of Last Christmas by Wham!)

Two screen versions of the Carol in particular drew me to the story as a child, and we’ll certainly come to those as the project progresses. There are others I have seen since of which I am also very fond, but at this point, in November 2015, I would say I have seen no more than a dozen versions. I hope, over time, to add a great many more than that to this blog.

The idea is that each review will be split up into sections, for greater ease of comparing and contrasting the various different versions as you browse through. The reviews won’t be in any particular order, whether chronological or otherwise – they’ll be posted as and when I come to them, or when I discover or finally watch versions I hadn’t seen before. I expect it’s a project I will add to from time to time for several years, so apologies if your favourite version isn’t up on here yet!

Some of you may wonder why I’m doing this if I love the story so much – won’t seeing and analysing so many versions make me sick of it? I’m not worried about this, however, as I don’t think that even the very best screen versions ever quite manage to capture the entire magic of the book. The book is always the book – it will always be the definitive version, for me. If you haven’t yet read it, I heartily recommend it – if you have enjoyed the story in other forms, I promise you it is never stronger or more potent, or more fun, than in Dickens’s original.

So that’s why this blog is here. Purely for a spot of seasonal amusement, or for whenever you and I may come to a version of A Christmas Carol throughout the year. If there’s a version, particularly an obscure or unusual one, that you think I really ought to have a look at, do please drop me a line via watchingthecarol@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading!